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This is Hasegawa's Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 1991 Ivory Coast Rally (kit #51564 / SP64) painted Tamiys TS-26 Pure White., with original decals and otherwise out of the box. The decals have discoloured over time - particularly the 'white' door cards - and I probably should have put them in a window for a few days before using. Typical of the early Hasegawa models, with much of the detail molded into the chassis for example. The raised suspension for the Ivory Coast Rally set up was a bit..... tenuous, but did manage to survive having the wheels put on. The extra protection at the front of the car was also somewhat lacking in precision of fitment but came together okay. Overall, a nice build of something a bit different. Grant. With the road-going Galant VR-4 I built at the same time.

This is my version of the Hasegawa Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 (kit #24001 / CD-1), painted Tamiya TS-94 Metallic Gray over TS-88 Titanium Silver. This is very clearly early Hasegawa in form and quality, with minimal parts and lots of detail molded into the chassis and interior tub rather than separate pieces. Still, it made a nice shelf model. Grant. With a rally version I completed at the same time.

Just seen from Airfix a 1:24 New Tool will be announced 07.11.2025..... Background shows some lightning so could it be a Lightning variant or is it merely something to throw us off the scent.... Exciting times.....!

Hello all. Having had nothing in stock for this fine Group Build, I found this on the Hannants website and it was so quirky it just had to go into the basket. That was Thursday just gone, and today, less than two days later it appeared at our front door! Great service Hannants, thank you. I had been looking for anything relatively new in cars, motorbikes, aircraft and ships, but this one topped the lot, it is the 1936 Toyoda Model AA, Toyotas first production car. I think it looks very Citroen-like, but I have to admit I am not an expert. Having read up about it since I ordered it, I have found that it was produced in one of three alternative colours; black, dark blue or 'Haizakura' which was a 'Cherry grey' which Tamiya suggest is mixed from 4 parts white and 1 part dark brown. Mine will be either black or blue. There is very striking box art: There is plenty of plastic to deal with, all very nicely moulded (I wonder how many times we'll hear this in this Group Build): I am keeping the chrome parts, it looks really good. There's also a good looking transfer sheet with some of the best chrome-effect markings I've ever seen, and a photo-etched parts for the Toyoda emblem: There will also be some Tamiya produced items used in the build too, although the paint may be black (as shown) or TS-55 Dark Blue. I am looking forward to starting this, it will be mid-September when I do due to other circumstances. Good luck all with your builds, Ray

This is the 2001 version of the Tamiya Subaru Impreza. The decals come from Rejimodel and are from the Rally Rajd Warszawski 2003 the paint is Tamiya, the orange was decanted for a more controlled application This was my first effort at weathering a rally car For those who like clean cars I started by spraying the white, masked off for the orange and then masked for the black stripe. I photocopied the decals and used that to make a template

Hi All, Another 'new' one. This was bought a very long time ago, and started a long time ago, and now resurrected in an attempt to get it done as well. So, the box art: I'm not sure if it ever raced outside Japan, but these single seat sports cars are fun to build. I have quite a few in my stash. And what with Tamiya releasing the Gazoo Toyota hybrid, and re-releasing the Mazda 767, well I feel my bank balance lightening as I type.... This one had a 4 cylinder turbo engine, and that's where I have got up to. Assembling the engine: I decided long ago to wire up the ignition, and this is the result. Don't look too closely at the distributor, trying to fit 8 itty-bitty teeny-weeny wires to something about 4mm across was, shall we say, challenging... It's a four cylinder engine, but with two plugs per cylinder. As I don't seem to get on with CA glue very will, I tried using a high-tack PVA glue. It sets a bit slower, but doesn't prefer (on the whole) to stick to me... Thanks for looking. More to come soon, Cheers, Alan.

I think quite a few of you have come across this kit and modified it a bit or not started yet as I've seen quite a few references, but can't think of seeing an out of box build on here. For a basic pick-up, this one seems to have proved a popular kit as it keeps being reissued in various forms. I've just gone for the basic earlier version. For something which doesn't have an engine there seems to be quite a few pieces to the kit, and generally the moulding seems pretty well thought out in terms of attachment points and ejector pin locations (cab floor excepted). This is what you get for your money. At this stage I'm just trying to get some paint on while the summer weather is here, the build won't be starting until after the Focus (assuming I get that all painted and decalled before the weather turns - I'm slow like that!). The instructions start with the body, so first job is to clean it up. The mould lines seem to have generally been designed to accommodate those people who don't clean them up, so for the most part follow edges or trim pieces and have been fairly easy to clean up, just make sure if you're building one that you don't lose detail doing this. The worst ones are on the rear corners, but at least they proved easily sandable. This is how it was looking after scribing out the panel lines some more and cleaning up the mould lines. That does seem very shiny plastic doesn't it? Hopefully the primer grips better than it does on the spoons as I'd prefer not to be having to key it if I don't have to. However, the first thing to focus on was the bed which is made up of five flat pieces. Fortunately they've all fitted about perfectly so a good start. This is another part of the build which is needed right from the beginning, so this was my first task of the build. And today that bed got its primer. I'm really pleased with how it looks, a proper red oxide appearance. If I was doing a well worn example it would have been tempting to leave it like this, but as usual I'm not it it won't stay like this. Rubbish photo in one way as this is the bit of the bed you won't see, but that cutdown BBQ skewer to help with manhandling during painting is preventing it going the right way up. Still, it gives the idea. So that's my first report on this one. I've got a pretty good idea on where I want to go with it (fairly stock). The only question in my mind is whether to go with the stock steel wheels, or to put a set of gold Watanabes on it.

I have built a few of the Hasegawa Lancia 037s and don’t have much more to add on the basic kit for a WIP than I have already shown on the previous builds. This one has a few differences though. The key difference is the trans kit to convert the Hasegawa kit to one of the early versions from 1982. The transkit includes a new bonnet with grills and lights and a new rear panel to replace the grill on the later versions. This will be my first time with resin and this wip will mostly cover my trials with this new medium. pictures of the car show that the side windows will also need to be replaced as they do not have the slide as per the Hasegawa boxing. They are not included in the trans kit so I will have to scratch them… Also included are some decals for a Totip version, this will be number 2 in my Totip collection if it goes to plan

I know quite a few of you have seen the build, but before I start here it is in all its 'glory'. As with all my RFI threads, all comments and constructive criticism are welcome. After all, I've spent almost 6 months looking at this in close-up so I'm fully aware it's not perfect! This is the first car I've built which didn't come with a complete body; with this one you have to assemble the panels to get the boxy VW van shape. This one, like the majority of my builds, is done straight out of the box so is naturally simpler than some of the masterpieces others put on this site. Before I started I wasn't confident that I would get a good result from it, particularly since it has opening doors all round. Fortunately Revell have done a good job of both the design and production of this and it went together pretty well. The main issues encountered were with the rear access door which was a little warped and needed micro-magnets to hold it in place... and then I went and snapped it anyway so had to do a repair. That repair wasn't as successful as the front bumper repair, but fortunately still isn't too noticeable. As for the kit itself, if you're into VW vans (I'm not, but still a nice looking model) then this one is well worth building, just probably not if it's your first car model. This one was the Jaegermeister livery as detailed in the box, but there are also instructions for a plain version too. Paints are Halfords primers, then Tamiya British Green and Orange topped off with Humbrol Clear. I was quite scathing about the Humbrol Clear in the thread, but to be fair it isn't a bad clear provided you take into account its limitations - namely it does not like humidity so you really want to be clear-coating in summer on a dry day otherwise it clouds up. Fortunately you can get rid of the clouding by giving it another coat of clear on a dryer day. The big plus of the Humbrol Clear is that it is very gentle on decals, certainly much better than Tamiya or Mr. Hobby. The interior is clear-coated Halfords Grey primer. Onto the build, and once again I've probably got a few too many pics here. But at least it should give a pretty good indication of what it looks like now its finished. As you can see from some of the photos, my new photography toy is a sheet of dusty black perspex... I'll start off with a walk around the van. The driver's door does try to close in too far but can be positioned with care. But here's the doors-closed look: Front left 3/4 view Driver's Side Rear left 3/4 view Rear View Rear right 3/4 view Passenger Side Front right 3/4 view Front view As I mentioned earlier, the doors also open, although it is being displayed all shut up. But here's some pics with the doors open anyway: Side views first: And then from the back And finally a couple of 3/4 views from the loading doors side I'll finish off with some close-ups of the insides, those bits you never really notice. First of all the engine bay, not a patch on those which have been detailed up but it's a dark hole on this colour van anyway so not particularly visible. The load bay is quite simple to do, but seems to have more character to it in the photos than you see in the real life model. The second photo, taken through the side doors, also feels large to my eyes. And onto the last compartment, the cabin. At least with the opening doors you do get a chance for a slightly better view in here, but still not the easiest place to get a good shot of. And that's it. Thanks to everyone who followed and I hope you like it.

Hi all, For my contribution to this memorial GB, I'll be building Tamiya's Austin Mini Cooper 1275S Mk.I - originally tooled in 1983 as a Morris Mini Cooper 1275S Mk.I with a few minor modifications subsequently made to make the 2001 boxing I'll be building (this might be just to file off the moulded Morris logo and add an Austin logo decal!). First, sprues: I've not built a car model before, so will be following the instructions pretty closely. We start off building up the engine, which I did with some trepidation as my last engine build was a questionably fitting Zvezda kit - I needn't have worried though, this is a Tamiya after all! Fit was perfect and straightfoward as usual, as were the wheel hubs and steering rack. A testament to the engineering as well - not only will the wheels turn, but the steering rack piece links them so they'll turn together. A lovely touch! Time to prepare the engine bay next.

This purchase started out as a way to use the spare tyres from my MX5 project and escalated into being part of a set (maybe a diorama... ) along with the Aoshima Brian James Trailers A4 Transporter and the mystery side project that won't be getting a WiP. I've split this and the trailer into separate threads because, from conversations I've had on here and reading @Anteater's WiP, there are going to be some 'challenges'. The tyres I modelled for the MX5 are about 32" and so I'm going to need a 2" lift kit to get clearance on the Rangey. As the OOB chassis seems to be the cause of most of the problems, I'm going to model a new one that hopefully fixes the issues and has separate suspension components, so I can offer it as a 'fix kit' with standard or lifted ride height. So I've started this kit by doing the absolutely most important thing... WHEELS! The OOB ones are pretty rudimentary and probably 15in (might be 16in, I can't remember), which won't cut it as the MX5 tyres are for 17in wheels. I was thinking of what would be a sensible aftermarket wheel for an early 70s 4x4 and decided the only way to go is steel 8 spokes. So I knocked one up. Because the original Rangey wheel has a very pronounced centre, I did a bit of research into series 1 hubs. From what I can see, they're the same as Land Rover ones, which makes sense. The 8 spokes are flat at the fastening point, so I modelled front and rear hub 'protrusions' that can be added as appropriate. I also did separate tyre valves, 'cos they're really hard to paint. I left the wheel nuts as part of the main wheel because it makes for a stronger component overall. I had a bit of a revelation when I painted the wheels, because I used a black base instead of white, which is what I generally throw under silver to make it 'brighter'. This is ProScale Paints Z-Tune Silver (I think) and using the black really helps with definition in the finished wheel by making the shadows darker. Makes sense, really. Don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before. Here's a final photo of the new wheels and tyres against one of the OOB items. I will paint the wheel nuts and there will hopefully be all kinds of weathering going on by the end of this build. Thanks for looking! I'd probably give it a couple of months before coming back... although I might put the interior together... I need to do that so I can model the new chassis. It's not going to be a quick one, though. Cheers! Martin

Before I go any further I must warn you all that this is going to be a bit of a false start with this one. I was hoping to be much further on before winter, but delays painting the Focus mean I'm very unlikely to have much to show before the weather gets too cold and humid for painting. But I have at least made a start, so here goes... I bought this about five years ago, not long after the model came out. But it was obviously long enough that I've got one from the second batch as it's being co-driven by Nigel Harris rather than his sister Angel First job was to try to get the chassis painted, at least with that done I can get something built if I get through the Sunny and chassis of the Focus before the weather improves next spring. And with that aim in mind, this is where the chassis and interior are at the moment: The chassis (on the left) has had Halfords primer and Gloss White (replacement for appliance White) added. That's all I plan to put on there, so I am in a position to at least build up the first seven stages of the instructions if needed. Meanwhile, the interior on the right is just in primer - as that needs both gloss white and satin black I don't expect that to be ready before winter. I've also got (almost) all the small white bits primed with just the body to go. I say almost becuase I got sidetracked with the headlights which won't be done until the end, but I wanted to add magnets so that the headlight cover can be easily added and removed: As you can see with the spotlight recesses, for once I've remembered to drill and fit the magnets at the start of the build rather than wait until it's too late. That bit hasn't been primed yet, but the cover has. Unfortunately, I used a Sharpie to line up the magnets, and the line isn't just not being covered by the Halfords primer, but has also reacted with it to leave semi-permanent lines which have blurred out into the primer. IPA has removed the primer, but not the Sharpie so I ended up resorting to sanding it off. Not the most exciting start, but another one into the spray booth before winter. Thanks for looking.

Another 037 for my collection and another driven by Salvador Servia / Jordan Sabater. This one carries the instantly recognisable colours of the Rothmans cigarette brand and represents the car that finished 3rd in the 1985 Rally Costa Brava. The kit is from Hasegawa and was built with minimal additions - wires in the engine and seatbelts from tape. The decals were from Studio 27 and caused me heaps of trouble. The roof is very poorly applied and all the stripes split multiple times. I have rescued what I could. The decals came from eBay and so I have no way of knowing how they had been looked after pre me getting them. I have had trouble with Studio 27 decals in the past but do have more to try… The blue is a leftover Zero paints version from a Rothmans Porsche 956 which matched the blue on the decals photos I have found show this version has blue seats and seatbelts. The seatbelts have Rothmans branding on them (I think). I used blue electrical tape and some PE buckles. To replicate the padded section I added some thicker tape wrapped around the belt. I didn’t have any Rothmans decals that would have worked so I added some spare Willans labels. Not correct but better than blank belts. For the receiver on the lap belt I added a yellow square cut from a yellow and green electrical tape and added a small magnet And here are some pictures of my 037 collection

Finally getting around to posting completed photos of my Fujimi Mini Cooper S With John Cooper Works Kits; kit #12553. Paint is Tamiys TS-26 with TS-54 Light Metallic Blue over. Otherwise it is out-of-the-box. I think this is one of Fujimi's nicer kits from this era with some very nice detail and a reasonable stance. I know many are not a fan of any BMW-era 'Mini' but the earlier ones I think are okay. You may recall the model was build as part of the triple Mini, Midi, Maxi wip: Grant.

I built this one to be part of a set of Totip sponsored rally cars. Whilst doing some online research for a future build I came across the fact that the Fiat empire replaced the Stratos with the 131 as their rally car before returning to Lancia with the 037. I had some misgivings over using the Italeri kit as the starting point as it is almost as old as me. My experiences can be found at the WIP I did on it but in short I am not planning another one anytime soon This vehicle represents the car driven by Andrea Zanussi / Arnaldo Bernacchini which retired at the 1982 Rallye dell’Isola d’Elba. Interestingly this rally featured the Stratos, the 131 and the 037. The kit is the Italeri Olio Fiat version and the decals are from Rejimodel. The 3 rally cars in order fielded by the Fiat empire

Hello all, Having just finished the last update today over on this thread of two years research and design work on 1/24 and 1/32 versions of the Westland Wasp helicopter: - I'm starting this new thread here to outline the 3d printing and contruction of the kit at 1/24th scale. The project includes options for both torpedo (Mk.44/46 versions, Mk.44 shown here): - and AS.12 missile version: With working blade folds on both: This thread wil be quiet for a bit whilst I put the next series of parts on to print, but eventually we should end up with something approximating this as a physical entity: Until the next instalment: Tony

Finally after 30+ years, this got done. Link to build here: Tamiya XJR-9 In typical Tamiya style, this kit was easy to build. with a few caveats: Some parts are very fragile, notably the windscreen wiper. The decals are complicated, but doable with care. They were a bit fragile after so long. A bit of stitching was needed I used Microscale MicroSet/MicroSol. The decals conformed well to the body shell curves. On the whole, I am very pleased with the outcome. There are a few blemishes in the clearcoat, but not many. Paints used: Zero Paints white Tamiya TS37 - Lavender Tamiya XF-1 - Flat black Citadel Abbadon black - Similar to, but less glossy than X-18 Vallejo Liquid Silver Tamiya XF16 - Aluminium Various Tamiya clear colours: Red/Orange/Blue Cements: Tamiya Extra thin Cellulose thinners Revell Contacta So, here are the pictures: On my workbench: That B****y spoiler! Outside in "real" light: A bit washed out! And, finally, on my shelf of honour: Well, that wraps that up, I think. BTW: The aerial is s bit of stretched sprue, melted over a tea-light flame (I'm not allowed anything hotter!) and stretched. Thanks for looking in. Cheers, Alan.

I am a big fan of the Lancia 037 rally, there, I have said it. Whilst doing some research into the 037 I read that the Lancia Stratos was replaced as a rally car by the Fiat 131, the bigwigs at Fiat decided the Fiat brand would be for rallying and the Lancia brand would go to circuit racers. The change in rules that ushered in group B reintroduced the Lancia brand. I thought it would be interesting to build a 131 if for no other reason than to sit it between a Stratos and an 037 and try and convince myself that they were chronologically in the right order. With an 037, a Delta S4 and a SuperDelta to do in the Totip orange and green it seemed fitting to do the 131 in a Totip scheme, this one coming from Rejimodel and covering number 3 at the 1982 SOL RACE rally and number 4 at the Elba Rallye. The kit I am using is the Italeri OlioFiat version (it was the cheapest) and is based on the ESCI moulding from the late 70s There are certainly not as many parts as can be expected in a modern kit but there is an engine to build. The moulds look to have passed the test of time quite well, the body being blemish free The bonnet is a separate piece although there aren’t any hinges. The engine and suspension. Not sure the springs would do much but it is nice to see the seatbelt ends - the kit provides decals but I will use tape The seats and a rollcage The scheme I am building given the low parts count I am expecting this to be quite a quick build.

With the weather being so good last weekend I figured it was time to try to get some paint on plastic. Unfortunately I didn't quite get that far, but here's what did happen. The next kit due for painting is the Simil'R Ford Focus WRC kit from a little over a decade ago. Unfortunately they only had a brief time in business so the kit is hard to find. And I can't afford to mess things up as spares will be almost impossible to find. Good timing in a way with one having just been posted in the RFI section a week or so ago so that gives me some added inspiration. The reason I wanted this kit is that it's the nearest I know of to my current (fun) car: Unfortunately, with prices being £70+ even if you can find one I'd pretty much given up on getting one. Then in the midst of the first Covid lockdown, I found one for just under £40 on Amazon from a seller who had it listed as an alternative seller to one listed in German amd showing as out of stock. Obviously an omen and everything in the universe telling me to buy it - what else was I to do? Generally it looks pretty detailed, although if I can build it without one of the suspension springs flying off into either my eye or the jaws of the carpet monster it will be a miracle. But I will give it a go. This is the plastic which comes with the kit (maybe I should have taken it out of the bags before the photos). In addition, you also get the aforementioned springs and some photoetch for added detail and testing of patience: First thing to do was to try to get something ready to paint, and this is where I failed miserably. I figured the chassis was probably a good place to start. Turned out not to be the case as there was this bit where the ejector pin looks to have sliced though the plastic - I think this needs firming up a bit to ensure we don't have a weak point here. So out with the dissolved sprue and I have the hole filled in. I'll leave it for at least this week to firm up before sanding back to shape, but at least this should prove stronger than filler. There was also a bit of a pin mark on the other side, but that took much less filling. Now a question for anyone who has built this (and I accept there probably aren't many). There are these two bits circled in red which I'm unsure of. My first thought was they were additional sprue channels to avoid a short shot, but on closer inspection they appear quite well moulded and have a definite pin / nipple on them as if they are meant to fit in something. But they don't seem to be shown on the instructions - does anyone know if they are meant to be there or should they be removed? And that little bit is all for this one for now. Thanks for looking, and any advice on the circled bits.

Following on from the WIP of this very enjoyable kit, some more photos of the finished tractor in her natural element. And some side by side with the prototype: And the model and base on their own: Thanks for watching!

Having been tempted for a while, I finally gave in during the first Covid lockdown and bought this one off eBay. Of course, that was the trigger for Tamiya to re-release it one month later at the same price as I paid but with added photoetch. So all of those of you who bought the new kit, you can thank me for buying it too early And if you haven't seen the WIP thread and want to go through it, it's here: I mentioned it was bought off eBay, so I'm not sure of the history, but was as new apart from it only had two wheels separated from the sprue and came with this article on the Europa from the Independent in 2005: I get the impression it was initially owned by someone who was more a fan of the car than of modelling. If so, I hope (s)he is pleased with what I've made of it. For anyone interested in the kit I can definitely recommend it as it's gone together very easily - the stereotypical Tamiya kit in fact. The end result isn't perfect, but most of the issues are quite minor and are down to either my hamfistedness or the age of the kit itself (i.e. 25 year old decals and sticky back metal transfers plus crazing paint). Overall, despite those issues I'm pleased with how it's come out. As usual, all comments and constructive criticism are welcome. And so onto the model itself. I've already teased the build with this pic in the WIP thread. There's fewer of the arty shots this time around as I'm getting used to the new camera, but there's probably still more than enough here. First up, the earliest bit of the build in the form of the engine. Then the obligatory trip around the car - I've also included some of the shots sitting on black glass in here too: And the nearest I could get to a top-down view (which unfortunately clearly shows the dodgy paintwork) The wheels took a while to get painted - quite fiddly but got there in the end. And I tried to get some pics of the inside as that took quite a chunk of the build time. Not particularly easy through the windows though and this was the best I could do: And finally, to round things off, a couple of my usual angled shots. Hope you like the photos. Thanks once more to all who looked in on the WIP and helped with morale boosting comments, advice and particularly spottedlaurel for the Lotus badging after the carpet monster raid.

The Lancia 037 is from Hasegawa, the kit has been released in several different sponsorship schemes over the years as limited edition kits. There are also a plethora of decal sets available from various aftermarket specialists. This version uses decals from Rejimodel to depict the car driven by A. Vudafieri / L. Pirollo in the 1983 Tour de Corse where they finished 3rd. The decal set came with a Benetton decal for the front light pod cover, I do not have any evidence that this appeared on the car in this rally but I have seen a photo with this scheme with the cover in place. This gave me another unique set up for my 037 collection with the rear bumper and light pod with covers in place. and with the other two completed earlier this year

Completed photos of my Hasegawa Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4 'Ray Package'; kit #20262. Paint is Tamiya TS-9 British Green for the body, Tamiya TS-42 Light Gun Metal roof and wheels, Tamiya TS-31 Bright Orange for the wing and interior mirrors to match the orange of the "Ray Package" decals. I also coated the green in Tamiya TS-65 Pearl Clear, though the effect really only comes out under sunlight or very bright light. What can I say? I think this kit will be unfairly disregarded due to the subject matter. I, like many, think the Countryman ALL4 is anethema to everything the Mini should represent and I only bought the kit because it was cheap and the box art is cool. But the kit itself is really good. A nice build with lots of detail and good engineering as is the case with many modern Hasegawa kits. You may recall the model was build as part of the triple Mini, Midi, Maxi wip:

The first of several 'in progress' projects I'll post and the most recent one I started. It's the Tamiya Mazda Eunos Roadster, or MK1 MX5, or Miata... Anyway, I bought this because it was cheap and I thought I might lower it and chuck some little fat wheels on. But then I thought that's what happens to most MK1 MX5s, so maybe I'll make a dune buggy because the tyres should be fairly easy to model. So I need to model a lift kit and some wheels, maybe a roll cage and new exhaust. First thing I did was wheels and tyres - because it's fun! I decided to recreate the original 14in wheel centres but as though they'd been machined from the original wheel and converted to split rims. Then I went with a 17in front rim and 15in rear to keep the overall diameters similar. The wheel centres are the same front and rear (because they're modelled on the originals) and I made separate valves that push in from the outside. After printing a set of these and mucking about with them for a while, and making a start on the front suspension, I decided I'd quite like to do a set of off-road wheels, too. Then I could make a trophy truck or rock crawler type vehicle as an alternative. Because the off-road wheels would be a square set-up (same diameter, width, offset front and rear, not actually square!), I thought my rear offset on the sand wheels was a bit too aggressive for the suspension to work with both sets of wheels and keep a similar front and rear track. I re-modelled the rear rims and re-printed them. As you can see in the photo below, it's not a massive difference (1.4mm actually). The left is the original and the right is the new version. Below is the final set of sand wheels and tyres with an original wheel and tyre for comparison. In order to create the off-road wheel set I needed to up my tyre modelling game and picked the Yokohama Geolandar X-AT as my inspiration. This wasn't too bad to model as it turned out and I'm really happy with the result. For the wheel, I went with a Fuel Zephyr as my starting point but made them a 4x100 bolt pattern to match the original MX5. I went for a 17in wheel and I can't remember what size tyre I picked but it comes out at about a 32in. The wheel comprises a Tamiya style locator that is also the wheel nuts, the wheel, a centre cap, a valve and a lock ring. I did this mainly for ease of painting Although, the separate centre locator does mean I can create an Aoshima/Fujimi style one in the future. I'll probably model some 5 and 6 bolt versions of the wheel, too. Once I'd printed the wheels and tyres, I thought it'd be much better if I gave the tyres a bit of 'sag' so they look like they've been aired down for off-road use. I use Fusion 360 for my modelling but it isn't really made for deforming stuff. As it happens, I also have a copy of Blender installed, so I used the mesh deformer in that to squash the bottom of the tyre and I'm really happy with the results. Below is a photo of the full set of wheels and also a comparison between round and sagged tyres. Whilst I'd been messing with wheels and tyres, I'd also been working on the front suspension mods. These components basically replace the kit originals directly with the removal of the anti-roll bar and addition of a sump guard/skid plate. I didn't want to have to cut or modify any of the original kit parts, so the front and rear track are vastly wider that original for tyre clearance. In fact, the wheels are entirely outside of the original bodywork! Although this doesn't articulate, I did check that it was "useable" in terms of camber and steering. It has a crazy amount of lift and I wanted to give as much ground clearance as possible, so the track rod angles are ridiculous. Through the full "movement" of the suspension, though, the hub would remain the same distance from the steering rack, so it shouldn't be a nightmare to drive. The track would actually alter dramatically, though, and I guess that's not ideal. Here are some shots of the front suspension so far, with comparisons to the original kit parts. Everything is beefed up for off-road use. I'm now working on modelling the rear suspension and am pretty much there. I still need to work out the propshaft, differential and half shafts, as I'm keeping to independent suspension. I think I'm going to attempt to model a Mazda RX7 diff and use it upside down for extra ground clearance. Here's a render of where I'm upto so far Wow! I think it's taken me almost as long to create this post as it has to model everything! I was thinking I could actually create a full exo cage for this and make a military version so I'd fit in more Anyway, if you've managed to make it this far down, I hope you've enjoyed it! Cheers Martin

Thought I’d share some pictures of one of my favourite builds, completed a couple of years ago. Airfix’s new-tooled 1/24 Spitfire was the subject, built mostly out of the box, with the exception of some HGW fabric seatbelts, Eduard 3D printed resin exhausts and a mask set from Montex. Painted with AK, MRP, SMS and Gunze paints and finished in a North Africa Scheme. This was actually built as a dual build of the same kit, over a period of about 6 months, a photo of its companion is at the bottom.